By Tom Wenstadt
Spring is here, the ice is thinning and the Great Lakes ships are beginning to move.
The S/S WILFRED SYKES left Sturgeon Bay the afternoon of March 23, heading for Two Harbors, Minnesota, for its first load of the season, and the M/V STEWART J. CORT departed Milwaukee’s harbor a couple of hours later destined for Superior, Wisconsin, to pick up its first assignment.
When the Cort took her maiden voyage on May 1, 1972, she was the first one-thousand footer on the Great Lakes.
She was built partially by Ingalls Shipbuilding Pascagoula, Mississippi, then completed at Erie Marine in Erie, Pennsylvania, for Bethlehem Steel Company. The ship has a unique self-loading arrangement. Instead of a typical deck mounted swing boom, the vessel has a short transverse shuttle boom at its stern. The ship has an unloading rate of 10,000 tons per hour.
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The ship’s specifications include a width of 105 feet, a depth of 49 feet and a capacity of 58,000 tons. She is powered by four EMD V20 3,600 horsepower diesel engines, two propellers and a bow thruster.
The ship has a forward pilot house and an aft deck house with an iron-ore red hull with white upper works.
The WILFRED SYKES was built as a straight decker completed in 1949 by American Shipbuilding Company, Lorain, Ohio. The vessel’s name came from the president of the owner, Inland Steel Co. She has carried her name throughout her life and has been owned and operated by Indiana Harbor Steamship Company and Central Marine Logistics Inc. of Highland, Indiana, since July, 1999. The Sykes had the honor of being Queen of the Lakes (the largest vessel on the Great Lakes) from 1949 through 1952. In a major upgrade, the vessel was converted to a self-unloader at the Fraser Shipyard in Superior, Wisconsin, in 1974-75. In her earlier years the vessel set a number of cargo carrying and unloading records.
The ship is 678 feet long, 70 feet wide, a depth of 37 feet, and has a capacity of 21,500 tons. She is powered by one 7,700 horsepower Westinghouse steam turbine engine that turns one propeller and powers a bow thruster. The vessel can self-unload at the rate of 6,000 tons per hour.
She can be identified by her forward pilot house, an aft self-unloading boom and an iron-ore red hull and white and gray upper paint.
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Photograph at top: The WILFRED SYKES was built as a straight decker completed in 1949 by American Shipbuilding Company, Lorain, Ohio. The Sykes had the honor of being Queen of the Lakes (the largest vessel on the Great Lakes) from 1949 through 1952. Photo by Bob Kuhn, Jan. 27, 2019. Photo Credit: Great Lakes Marine Collection – Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.
More photos:
first one-thousand footer on the Great Lakes. She was built partially by Ingalls
Shipbuilding Pascagoula, Mississippi, then completed at Erie Marine in Erie,
Pennsylvania, for Bethlehem Steel Company. The ship has a unique self-loading
arrangement. Instead of a typical deck mounted swing boom, the vessel has a
short transverse shuttle boom at its stern. The ship has an unloading rate of
10,000 tons per hour. Here she’s pictured by Bob Kuhn in March 2018.
Photo Credit: Great Lakes Marine Collection – Milwaukee Public Library and
Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.
American Shipbuilding Company, Lorain, Ohio. The vessel’s name came from
the president of the owner, Inland Steel Co. She has carried her name throughout
her life and has been owned and operated by Indiana Harbor Steamship
Company and Central Marine Logistics Inc. of Highland, Indiana, since July,
1999. The Sykes had the honor of being Queen of the Lakes (the largest vessel
on the Great Lakes) from 1949 through 1952. In a major upgrade, the vessel was
converted to a self-unloader at the Fraser Shipyard in Superior, Wisconsin, in
1974-75. In her earlier years the vessel set a number of cargo carrying and
unloading records. This photograph was taken by Craig Olson in 2000. Photo
Credit: Great Lakes Marine Collection – Milwaukee Public Library and
Wisconsin Marine Historical Society
Tom Wenstadt, who lives in Sturgeon Bay, is a retired marine engineer, having worked in the Great Lakes area for thirty-seven years. He holds a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Michigan Technological University and is the author of Freighters of Manitowoc. He is a member of the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society and the Door County Maritime Museum & Lighthouse Preservation Society. He is a volunteer archival assistant and docent for the JOHN PURVES.
